Due to financial difficulties, Buzzfeed News closes in Mexico and Spain

30/01/2019

The media crisis continues. Not only Millennium, Grupo Radio Centro, Televisa, Excelsior, Reforma, El Universal or Grupo Imagen have suffered changes in the communication industry, now it was the famous digital media Buzzfeed that will have to cut jobs by 15%, They represent approximately 200 people.

The American company will have to lay off some 200 people due to financial problems. (Photo: Buzzfeed screenshot)

But the Buzzfeed decision is not given because it is a cut aimed at reducing costs and be profitable. Under this idea, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti wrote to his employees on Wednesday explaining that the layoffs will help the company no longer have to ask for money from its investors.

Of course, this cut affects not only the United States, where there will be numerous layoffs, it also means that the company will give up part of its content in Spanish and the news division of Buzzfeed Mexico, which will have to close.

Like many media outlets, Buzzfeed leaders pointed out that the company has not been profitable for several years, having to raise hundreds of millions of dollars from investors like Comcast's NBCUniversal.

The problem of Buzzfeed and the media, in general, is that in recent years Facebook and Google, main platforms for users to consume content, have made movements that allow them to keep most of the money from digital advertising.

A case similar to Buzzfeed is Verizon, a company that also announced the cut of some 800 jobs in its media division, which includes Yahoo and HuffPost. Another case occurred on December 20, when Grupo Imagen also made a very large cut of personnel and since that day the journalist Carlos Meraz has led public complaints about violations of the Federal Labor Law.

And it is that this crisis has not only suffered by the companies, also the journalists who give life to the media, but who have suffered violence, poor working conditions, exploitation and decreasing wages.